Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle, portrays the plight of immigrants in the meatpacking district of Chicago. The idealistic American Dream seems to be that of a fiction novel as Jurgis Rudkas loses his way in the corrupt streets of Chicago. Although, Upton Sinclair reveals that it is not the fault in America, but the faults of capitalism that is the source of pain for immigrants. The Jungle, in nature depicts the harsh realities of immigrant life, however it is fictional in that Upton Sinclair shapes the outcome of the novel and where the blame should be placed for the horrific events of Jurgis Rudkas new life. Consistently Upton Sinclair uses socialism as the quintessential answer to the survival of the fittest economy of the United States. …show more content…
The forceful and persuasive nature of the novel is very compelling to sympathize with immigrants when typically they are seen as less for not being American. This momentum would last him some time, however he would not achieve the same success as a writer again. Simply, The Jungle is irreplaceable in its effect on American society; informing the people to the conditions of immigrant workers, the ideals of socialism, and the unsanitary meat in the factories. This was achieved through the description of the winters, the tragic loses, the deconstruction of capitalism, the blame for turmoil, and Jurgis Rudkas new life purpose through the socialist party. Seen throughout the novel, Upton Sinclair’s bias makes the novel truly unique and contributes to its success, even if it was not the success he desired. He would continue to write several novels, most of which use the same rhetoric in favor of socialism. As for Sinclair, he believed the socialist party was not just a happy ending to a political fiction novel, but could be the answer to the plight of immigrants and those suffering under capitalism. The Jungle outlines the harsh realities of life and the toll it takes until the enlightenment brought by socialism. Though socialism is not as popular today, the ending of the novel would bring any reader relief in that, at least for one immigrant, the suffering might end and that all the suffering had a purpose. Socialism was the answer for Upton Sinclair, Jurgis Rudkas, and other Americans, however, it was never the answer for
This hard working, yet naïve immigrant leads his family from Lithuania to the one word of English he knows, Chicago. In the beginning of the novel, Jurgis believes a good, strong work ethic is the foundation for what any person needs to be successful in America, even opposing the very idea of a union. Upton Sinclair affirms this idea by writing, “But Jurgis had no sympathy with such ideas as this- he could do the work himself, and so could the rest of them, he declared, if they were good for anything. If they couldn’t do it, let them go somewhere else” (Sinclair, 43). But throughout the novel, it is exposed that greedy businessmen take advantage of unskilled workers by lowering wages and extending working hours because of the abundance of immigrants willing to work for less. For example, business leaders employed women and children at a fraction of the pay rate compared to men, which promoted institutionalized poverty and highlighted the lack of government influence in this economic period. Everyone is willing to undercut each other just to survive the machinery of capitalism, as evident by the title The Jungle, a cut throat competition for survival. Just like the cattle and pigs lined up to be slaughtered in Packingtown, wave after wave of immigrants lined up to be worn down and abused by the non-stop grind of dehumanizing conditions. Sinclair shows that the painful and toxic evils of capitalism are the driving force which keeps hard working immigrants like Jurgis from leaving their socio-economic
The novel, “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair can be interpreted differently by modern impoverished American immigrants/minorities and the modern American rich class. “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair is a fictional novel and was published in 1906. It was based on the lives of the individuals he observed in Chicago around that time. He discovered that the lower-working class there was doing horrific work for not enough pay to get themselves, let alone their families, by. He emphasizes on the flaws of the “American Dream” and writes in the support of the Socialist party of the time. The book is about Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to find work in Chicago, Illinois
The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, is a novel shedding light on work conditions in factories and constant unjustified acts. The story is filled with many different political and social issues for immigrants in the early 1900s. Sinclair uses multiple literary devices to express these issues in a way the reader may understand. Of the many issues pointed out in this novel, the one that stood out the most was disillusionment. The characters are constantly faced with new ideas they don’t yet understand, making them vulnerable to such an issue.
In the book The Jungle, Upton Sinclair portrays the life of a Lithuanian family and begins working in the unhealthy and unsanitary meat packing plants. Sinclair is part of the socialist party. Sinclair’s diction, imagery, and anaphora help expose the harsh, unhealthy working conditions that the workers faced in the meatpacking industry in order to put in laws that regulate the working conditions. Sinclair’s overall purpose is to promote Socialism to help the immigrants and others working get the fair and just treatment that they deserve.
Upton Sinclair published his novel, The Jungle, in 1906 using elements of naturalistic fiction, with the idea that ordinary people cannot overcome the system, to convey his political agenda. He did this by writing about a fictional family that comes to Chicago from Lithuania with the promise of guaranteed work where they “might earn three roubles a day” and be “rich m[en] in the bargain” (Sinclair 24-25). He used the meatpacking industry to show the extreme affects a large scale industry can have on an individual and on a family and to draw sympathy from the reader for typical families in capitalist America, choosing to focus on the immigrant experience. The Jungle, however, not only describes the horrific working conditions and the failures
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was the most impactful during its time. This book was written to portray Capitalism in a more realistic manner, to show how inhuman, brutal, and violent the unregulated economic system could be to those working in labor. Sinclair uses Jurgis’s family to prove the effects an unfair economic system has on the working class. During this period of industrial prosperity, immigrants came to America with total faith in the “American Dream”, that their hard work will be rewarded with wealth and stability. But they soon find out that this dream is as hollow and shallow as the hearts of the men they worked for. Sinclair proves how sinful Capitalism is, between selling meat coated in disease and forcing small children into
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was a novel written to display the crudeness of Chicago’s big business. It tells the life of Jurgis Rudkus, who moves to Chicago, Illinois from Lithuania. He faces many health and employment related issues in his new life. Upton Sinclair uses capitalism as a symbol of evil, and corruption, he does this by telling the health, and employment related issues Jurgis and his family have, while socialism is symbolized as angelic and bright. What should have been a clear beginning after Jurgis’ wedding, was actually great turmoil.
Several years before and after the turn the turn of the twentieth century, America experienced a large influx of European immigration. These new citizens had come in search of the American dream of success, bolstered by promise of good fortune. Instead they found themselves beaten into failure by American industry. Upton Sinclair wanted to expose the cruelty and heartlessness endured by these ordinary workers. He chose to represent the industrial world through the meatpacking industry, where the rewards of progress were enjoyed only by the privileged, who exploited the powerless masses of workers. The Jungle is a novel and a work of investigative journalism; its primary purpose was to inform the general public about the dehumanization
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is a story about a family that travels to America in hopes of living the “American dream”. Once they arrive, they soon find that dream is not so easy to obtain. Throughout the book he stresses that socialism is the answer and capitalism is evil. I enjoyed this reading because it really showed what it was really like at the time. People were dreaming of freedom and having the white picket fence house, but in reality most people were struggling to just stay alive.
In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.
Written by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle explores the sheer, harsh conditions of the living and working environment in the Chicago stockyards. The title is significant because it represents the realities of the labor force and depicts a wild, brutal environment that benefited the wealthy, while leaving the inferior working class fighting to survive. In Particular, the The Jungle denotes the life of Jurgis and his family in Packingtown and their hardships they face in the Chicago stockyards. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle has a significant title because through corruption and capitalism, the weak and poor suffer, while the strong and wealthy flourish.
The Jungle is a book that was written in 1906, in the middle of the Progressive Era. It was written by Upton Sinclair for the purpose to try to awaken the reader to the terrible living conditions of immigrants in the cities. But also to show how the harsh critical system led to meat inspection legislation and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. This novel specifies in every little detail about the living conditions and the working conditions of the immigrants. In this book, Sinclair indirectly articulates what the American Dream was and what it meant for all the immigrants.
The Jungle is a novel that focuses on a family of immigrants who came to America looking for a better life. The novel was written by Upton Sinclair, who went into the Chicago stockyards to investigate what life was like for the people who worked there. The book was originally written with the intent of showing Socialism as a better option than Capitalism for the society. However, the details of the story ended up launching a government investigation of the meat packing plants, and ultimately regulation of food products. It gave an informative view of what life was like in America at the time. Important topics like immigration, working conditions and sanitation issues of the time were all addressed well in the novel.
The American industrial revolution is normal thought of as a time of happiness and prosper because of the constant stream of innovations and technologies. However, most of the hardships and struggles that were faced in this time we're not the American citizens, but the immigrants that came in search of jobs and a better life. Sadly, these immigrants didn't find a better life and instead worked long hours in terrible conditions with little pay. The novel, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair focusses on the struggles and hardships of these very immigrants. Through the use of figurative language in the Novel, The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair, Sinclair tries to convey his message that the immigrant workers during the industrial revolution
The novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair depicts the lives of poor immigrants in the United States during the early 1900’s. Sinclair is extremely effective in this novel at identifying and expressing the perils and social concerns of immigrants during this era. The turmoil that immigrants faced was contingent on societal values during the era. There was a Social Darwinist sentiment